Heating Oil Prices Down

By Paul Kurtz

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Spring-like weather is helping to push oil prices down even further. That's welcome news for heating oil customers.

This is the time of year you normally see a lot of those big oil trucks making home deliveries. But not this season, at least not yet. With temperatures hovering in the 50's and 60's consumers don't have much of a need to fire up the burner.

Heating oil prices are down to around a $1.59 per gallon and Dan Koltonuk, heating oil Program Manager for the Center City based Energy Co-Op, says they'll probably remain low throughout the winter.

"You have a lot of people who are using less oil but you also have a lot of oil that is just kind of sitting there in reserves right now. It's not being used. There's oversupply and less demand," said Koltonuk.

For consumers these are boom times. The United States Energy Information Administration says households will save an estimated $750 this year. But the season is shaping as a bust for heating oil suppliers, says Koltonuk.

"A lot of suppliers hire seasonal help to handle the excess demand but there's next to no demand for right now so yeah, the suppliers are absolutely feeling it," said Koltonuk.